|
PS: The Scotsman states that the runway at Kinloss needs re-surfacing? S-D |
So why would anybody want to face the cost of re-opening Kinloss or Leuchars and manning such places when Prestwick is 24/7/365, has a 9800ft runway and 6000 ft cross runway, is 99.9% fog free, 747 sized hanger plenty of local housing, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, etc and is already one of the busiest military airfields in the UK and an RN base for submarine ops ? Given the RAF, RN, Army, USAF, USN, USMC, USA, RCAF, FAF, FN, GAF, RNAF, BAF et all, all use Prestwick, many today, then why not the USA style Joint civil / military airfield ? Or would that be too sensible. (4 P8 visits last week btw.)
|
PIK3141, and don't forget Ryanair could service them!
|
Ah Prestwick and MPA
Memories of the night of the "mother of all diversions". If you were there you know; and if you were not, you don't need to. |
|
PIK belongs to the Scottish Government.
Can you imagine the rent that would be charged to Whitehall for a P8 base there?! |
Cazelet,
The SNP have expended as much noise about the lack of MPA/ASW capability around the however many hundreds of miles of Scottish coastline, they'd have a right nerve to charge as much as a bawbee for utilizing Prestwick International as the UK's new premiere MPA/ASW Base. FB |
Cazelet,
The SNP have expended as much noise about the lack of MPA/ASW capability around the however many hundreds of miles of Scottish coastline, they'd have a right nerve to charge as much as a bawbee for utilizing Prestwick International as the UK's new premiere MPA/ASW Base. FB |
So, not likely to reopen a station just for 9 aircraft? Well, wasn't Kinloss only to receive the same number of MRA.4s when the Nimrod programme shut? The full infrastructure for a flying station is still in situ only some 6 months after closure and I believe it is a 24/7 diversionary airfield anyway. The Army may be based there but, given the size of the units, probably only require a fraction of the infrastructure. To be sure, significant investment would be required but it is a reasonable location.
The caveat to any basing location is, of course, the direction of the political wind. Rosyth Dockyard, for example, had everything going for it - expertise, infrastructure, future investment - to continue its role in refitting RN submarines. Except...Devonport was a Conservative marginal seat and it, in the end, received the contract. Returning MPA to Scotlandshire would be a welcome political development and hopefully leave nationalist grievance-based politicians lost for words.... |
The basing study from about 15 years back guaranteed MRA4 basing at Kinloss only until 2013, and then it seemed likely they'd move as ISK was to become the base for the Tonka wing. The MRA4 program, as planned, was also going to deliver rather more than 9 frames.
In other news a recent poll (yesterday) of ex-Maritime mates found that none of those questioned would go back to Moray, even to fly shiny new P-8s |
|
Pure speculation by the Courier, absolutely no chance of re-opening Leuchars now the Army has just gone in. IMO there are only three locations in the frame, Waddington as a home base (pretty much a no brainer as the defacto ISTAR home) with Dets at either Lossie or Kinloss. A mix and match of P8s and Typhoon in the circuit at Lossie in the present day probably negates Lossiemouth, even though Shacks and Buccs seemed to get on OK in days past. My money is on some sort of re-opening of Kinloss, maybe not a full opening as such but probably for some sort of FOB with maybe even the Sim located in that brand newish empty ex MRA4 Sim Sqn building. One other point not often mentioned, if it is going to be Waddington, where would they house the significant influx of Aircrew and Groundcrew, from what I gather MQs and Barrack Block accommodation at Waddington is very much in short supply just now. Whereas at Kinloss with rumours flying around that the Army boys have been given their marching orders "heads up" there is plenty of accommodation for singlies and married people loads of quarters on northside, and of course plenty of unused new buildings for everyone to use as operating facilities. My only concern about Kinloss how does "Call me Dave" slither out of explaining he has authorised re-opening a base he shut. |
or St Mawgan if we want a real MRA Base...................
Arc |
"Clear join Rwy 23LHC, 21 in" They were a mix of Hunters, Jaguars, Buccaneers, a Shackleton and a visiting Andover. Never forgotton that call and ive never worked so bloody hard in my life as local assistant! It worked though and if my memory is correct overtaking the Shack on the downwind leg was allowed. A certain operational airfield in Singapore regularly managed mixed circuits with .... Lightning, Mirage, Hunter, Canberra, Cessna 172K*, Single Pioneer and assorted visiting V-Force and "Transport Command". * RSAF 1. Mirage PFL was, IIRC, High Key at 14,000 ft downwind. Stimulating to watch! 2. In a strong crosswind, i had a Single Pin land diagonally across the r/w and then continue straight ahead into its dispersal 3. My 'circuit record' was 34 Mirage IIIO returning from a mass flypast over KL. On recovery they spaced out as 4-ships at 5 miles using AI for a run and break in stream. I recall just about keeping up with proceedings with the occasional "Land in turn, 6 ahead and 7 on ..." |
Biggus,
WARNING - THREAD DRIFT! The fire services actually put out very few fires in this country these days, thats because of all the efforts that have successfully gone into FIRE PREVENTION. If a similar approach was adopted, i.e. prevention rather than cure, within the NHS then this country could save tens of billions of pounds! How would this prevention be accomplished? By getting people to take responsibility for their own health, rather than delegating it to the state. Educate the population properly on healthly eating practices, basic exercise needs, sleeping requirements, etc. Stop spending billions of pounds on "fixing" medical conditions which were preventable in the first place, leaving time, space and resources to deal with disease and injury!! Sorry for the interuption to your normal viewing.... BACK TO THE THREAD!! We live in "it was not me it was (insert some other external person/agency)'s fault" culture. An example heard on the radio this morning was about the uptake of breast feeding as a result of all the major campaigns on it. There has been no overall increase. One titbit (pardon the pun) that struck me was that for unemployed and low income families the number of mothers breastfeeding has dropped significantly. Now to me that makes no sense since formula milk is very expensive and breast milk is free. Excuses given by several unemployed mothers was that they had no time to breast feed their child!!! NO TIME???? WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING INSTEAD??? Rant over. |
Plenty of room at Aberdeen...
|
Topcliffe? It housed' the Neptunes/P2s'.
|
Of all the problems facing the RAF today, finding spare Tarmac for aeroplanes is surely the least of them!
|
finding spare Tarmac for aeroplanes is surely the least of them! |
Spot on, BillHicksRules.
Biggus, the NHS pumps billions into health promotion, but as BHR says the public will always do what it wants to do. If somebody wants to ignore advice on diets and giving up smoking the NHS is still obliged to treat them when they get ill as a result, and so it remains a balancing act. On top of that there are some things that health promotion can do nothing about, such as aneurysms, road accidents and so on. Back to air power. |
| All times are GMT. The time now is 21:06. |
Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.